Title: Notes
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Russian IN FULL ALEKSANDR NIKOLAYEVICH emperor of Russia (1855-81). His
liberal education and distress at the outcome of the Crimean War, which had demonstrated
Russia's backwardness, inspired him toward a great program of domestic reforms, the
most important being the emancipation (1861) of the serfs. A period of repression after
1866 led to a resurgence of revolutionary terrorism and to Alexander's own assassination.
Life
The future Alexander II was the eldest son of the grand duke Nikolay Pavlovich (who, in
1825, became the emperor Nicholas I) and his wife, Alexandra Fyodorovna (who, before
her marriage to the Grand Duke and baptism into the Orthodox Church, had been the
princess Charlotte of Prussia). Alexander's youth and early manhood were overshadowed
by the overpowering personality of his dominating father, from whose authoritarian
principles of government he was never to free himself. But at the same time, at the
instigation of his mother, responsibility for the boy's moral and intellectual development
was entrusted to the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, a humanitarian liberal and romantic.
Alexander, a rather lazy boy of average intelligence, retained throughout his life traces of
his old tutor's romantic sensibility. The tensions created by the conflicting influences of
Nicholas I and Zhukovsky left their mark on the future emperor's personality. Alexander
II, like his uncle Alexander I before him (who was educated by a Swiss republican tutor, a
follower of Rousseau), was to turn into a "liberalizing," or at any rate humanitarian,
autocrat.
Alexander succeeded to the throne at the age of 36, following the death of his father in
February 1855, at the height of the Crimean War. The war had revealed Russia's glaring
backwardness in comparison with more advanced nations like England and France.
Russian defeats, which had set the seal of final discredit on the oppressive regime of
Nicholas I, had provoked among Russia's educated elite a general desire for drastic
change. It was under the impact of this widespread urge that the Tsar embarked upon a
series of reforms designed, through "modernization," to bring Russia into line with the
more advanced Western countries. (See Great Reforms.)
Among the earliest concerns of the new emperor (once peace had been concluded in Paris
in the spring of 1856 on terms considered harsh by the Russian public) was the
improvement of communications. Russia at this time had only one railway line of
significance, that linking the two capitals of St. Petersburg and Moscow. At Alexander's
accession there were fewer than 600 miles (965 kilometres) of track; when he died in
1881, some 14,000 miles (22,525 kilometres) of railway were in operation. In Russia, as
elsewhere, railway construction, in its turn, meant a general quickening of economic life in
a hitherto predominantly feudal agricultural society. Joint-stock companies developed, as
did banking and credit institutions. The movement of grain, Russia's major article of
export, was facilitated.
The same effect was achieved by another measure of modernization, the abolition of
serfdom. In the face of bitter opposition from landowning interests, Alexander II,
overcoming his natural indolence, took an active personal part in the arduous legislative
labours that on Feb. 19, 1861, culminated in the Emancipation Act. By a stroke of the
autocrat's pen, tens of millions of human chattels were given their personal freedom. By
means of a long-drawn-out redemption operation, moreover, they were also endowed with
modest allotments of land. Although for a variety of reasons the reform failed in its
ultimate object of creating an economically viable class of peasant proprietors, its
psychological impact was immense. It has been described as "the greatest social movement
since the French Revolution" and constituted a major step in the freeing of labour in
Russia. Yet at the same time, it helped to undermine the already shaken economic
foundations of Russia's landowning class.
The abolition of serfdom brought in its train a drastic overhaul of some of Russia's archaic
administrative institutions. The most crying abuses of the old judicial system were
remedied by the judicial statute of 1864. Russia, for the first time, was given a judicial
system that in important respects could stand comparison with those of Western countries
(in fact, in many particulars it followed that of France). Local government in its turn was
remodelled by the statute of 1864, setting up elective local assemblies known as zemstva.
Their gradual introduction extended the area of self-government, improved local welfare
(education, hygiene, medical care, local crafts, agronomy), and brought the first rays of
enlightenment to the benighted Russian villages. Before long zemstvo village schools
powerfully supported the spread of rural literacy. Meanwhile, Dmitry Milyutin, an
enlightened minister of war, was carrying out an extensive series of reforms affecting
nearly every branch of the Russian military organization. The educative role of military
service was underlined by a marked improvement of military schools. The army statute of
1874 introduced conscription for the first time, making young men of all classes liable to
military service. (See zemstvo.)
The keynote of these reforms--and there were many lesser ones affecting various aspects
of Russian life--was the modernization of Russia, its release from feudalism, and
acceptance of Western culture and technology. Their aim and results were the reduction of
class privilege, humanitarian progress, and economic development. Moreover, Alexander,
from the moment of his accession, had instituted a political "thaw." Political prisoners had
been released and Siberian exiles allowed to return. The personally tolerant emperor had
removed or mitigated the heavy disabilities weighing on religious minorities, particularly
Jews and sectarians. Restrictions on foreign travel had been lifted. Barbarous medieval
punishments were abolished. The severity of Russian rule in Poland was relaxed. Yet,
notwithstanding these measures, it would be wrong, as is sometimes done, to describe
Alexander II as a liberal. He was in fact a firm upholder of autocratic principles, sincerely
convinced both of his duty to maintain the God-given autocratic power he had inherited
and of Russia's unreadiness for constitutional or representative government.
Practical experience only strengthened these convictions. Thus, the relaxation of Russian
rule in Poland led to patriotic street demonstrations, attempted assassinations, and, finally,
in 1863, to a national uprising that was only suppressed with some difficulty--and under
threat of Western intervention on behalf of the Poles. Even more serious, from the Tsar's
point of view, was the spread of nihilistic doctrines among Russian youth, producing
radical leaflets, secret societies, and the beginnings of a revolutionary movement. The
government, after 1862, had reacted increasingly with repressive police measures. A
climax was reached in the spring of 1866, when Dmitry Karakozov, a young
revolutionary, attempted to kill the Emperor. Alexander--who bore himself gallantly in the
face of great danger--escaped almost by a miracle. The attempt, however, left its mark by
completing his conversion to conservatism. For the next eight years, the Tsar's leading
minister--maintaining his influence at least in part by frightening his master with real and
imaginary dangers--was Pyotr Shuvalov, the head of the secret police.
The period of reaction following Karakozov's attempt coincided with a turning point in
Alexander's personal life, the beginning of his liaison with Princess Yekaterina
Dolgorukaya, a young girl to whom the aging emperor had become passionately attached.
The affair, which it was impossible to conceal, absorbed the Tsar's energies while
weakening his authority both in his own family circle (his wife, the former princess Marie
of Hesse-Darmstadt, had borne him six sons and two daughters) and in St. Petersburg
society. His sense of guilt, moreover, made him vulnerable to the pressures of the Pan-
Slav nationalists, who used the ailing and bigoted empress as their advocate when in 1876
Serbia became involved in war with the Ottoman Empire. Although decidedly a man of
peace, Alexander became the reluctant champion of the oppressed Slav peoples and in
1877 finally declared war on Turkey. Following initial setbacks, Russian arms eventually
triumphed, and, early in 1878, the vanguard of the Russian armies stood encamped on the
shores of the Sea of Marmara. The prime reward of Russian victory--seriously reduced by
the European powers at the Congress of Berlin--was the independence of Bulgaria from
Turkey. Appropriately, that country still honours Alexander II among its "founding
fathers" with a statue in the heart of its capital, Sofia. (See Pan-Slavism.)
Comparative military failure in 1877, aggravated by comparative diplomatic failure at the
conference table, ushered in a major crisis in the Russian state. Beginning in 1879, there
was a resurgence of revolutionary terrorism soon concentrated on the person of the Tsar
himself. Following unsuccessful attempts to shoot him, to derail his train, and finally to
blow up the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg itself, Alexander, who under personal attack
had shown unflinching courage based on a fatalist philosophy, entrusted supreme power to
a temporary dictator. The minister of the interior, Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov, was
charged with exterminating the terrorist organization (calling itself People's Will) while at
the same time conciliating moderate opinion, which had become alienated by the
repressive policies pursued since 1866. At the same time, following the death of the
Empress in 1880, the Tsar had privately married Yekaterina Dolgorukaya (who had borne
him three children) and was planning to proclaim her his consort. To make this step
palatable to the Russian public, he intended to couple the announcement with a modest
concession to constitutionalist aspirations. There were to be two legislative commissions
including indirectly elected representatives. This so-called Loris-Melikov Constitution, if
implemented, might possibly have become the germ of constitutional development in
Russia. But on the day when, after much hesitation, the Tsar finally signed the
proclamation announcing his intentions (March 1, 1881), he was mortally wounded by
bombs in a plot sponsored by People's Will.
It can be said that he was a great historical figure without being a great man, that what he
did was more important than what he was. His Great Reforms indeed rank in importance
with those of Peter the Great and Lenin, yet the impact of his personality was much
inferior to theirs. The Tsar's place in history--a substantial one--is due almost entirely to
his position as the absolute ruler of a vast empire at a critical stage in its development.
Assessment.
The modernization of Russian institutions, though piecemeal, was extensive. In
Alexander's reign, Russia built the base needed for emergence into capitalism and
industrialization later in the century. At the same time, Russian expansion, especially in
Asia, steadily gathered momentum. The sale of Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 was
outweighed in importance by the acquisition of the Maritime Province from China (1858
and 1860) and the founding of Vladivostok as Russia's far eastern capital (1860), the
definitive subjugation of the Caucasus (in the 1860s), and the conquest of central Asia
(Khiva, Bokhara, Turkestan) in the 1870s. The contribution of the reign to the
development of what was to be described as Russia's "cotton imperialism" was immense.
Here also, the reign of Alexander paved the way for the later phases of Russian
imperialism in Asia.
Alexander's importance lies chiefly in his efforts to assist Russia's emergence from the
past. To some extent, he was, of course, the representative of forces--intellectual,
economic, and political--that were stronger than himself or, indeed, any single individual.
After the Crimean War, the modernization of Russia had indeed become imperative if
Russia was to retain its position as a major European power. But even within the context
of a wider movement, the role of Alexander II, through his position as autocratic ruler,
was a highly important one. The Great Reforms, both in what they achieved and in what
they failed to do, bear the imprint of his personality. Unfortunately, however, by placing
great power in the hands of the influential reactionary minister K.P. Pobedonostsev--
whom he appointed minister for church affairs (procurator of the Holy Synod) and
entrusted with the education of his son and heir, the future Alexander III--Alexander II,
perhaps unwittingly, did much to frustrate his own reforming policies and to set Russia
finally on the road to revolution.
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